Here's a 21st Century Skill--and How to Teach It!
Daniel Willingham, Science & Education, 2017/10/02
I'm going to give Daniel Willingham props for a no-qualifications admission that he was wrong in the past. He has argued in the past that students should be taught domain knowledge, rather than critical thinking or other '21st century skills'. More...

Why Higher Ed Needs to Bridge the Critical Thinking Skills Gap
Frank Connolly , EdSurge, 2017/09/05
I agree that "providing appropriate guidance in critical thinking needs to become a central part of the college value proposition," but I don't think this article makes the case very well. It's based on a Wall Street Journal examination of the Collegiate Learning Assessment Plus (CLA+) test, described as "a standardized testing initiative designed to measure college students’ critical thinking skills." Examples here. More...

Assessing Learning Outcomes: Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking and Written Communication Skills
Vera Beletzan, Melissa Gabler, Paula Gouveia, Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, 2017/08/30
When I think about my own intellectual history I can think of several keystone events in which I received explicit guidance in critical thinking (and writing) which advanced my thinking significantly. One was reading Eleanor Maclean's Between the Lines. Another was reading Darrell Huff's How to Lie With Statistics. Another was a close reading and analysis of one of my papers given to me by Jon Bordo, a philosophy professor. More...

Running a university requires a rare combination of skills. Pay peanuts, and you will get monkeys in charge of them. More...